October 2019

October 31, 2019

Pathologist says Epstein's injuries point to murder, not suicideA forensic pathologist hired by Jeffrey Epstein's brother said Wednesday that evidence suggested the disgraced financier had not died by suicide in his jail cell but had been murdered. "I think that the evidence points toward homicide rather than suicide," Baden, a former New York City medical examiner who was present at the autopsy, told Fox News.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2PBlvbL
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 31, 2019

Fire sweeps Pakistani train, killing 73, after cooking fireA fire swept through a Pakistani train on Thursday, killing 73 people and injuring nearly 40 after a gas canister that passengers were using to cook breakfast exploded, the minister of railways said. The fire destroyed three of the train's carriages near the town of Rahim Yar Khan in the south of Punjab province. It was the worst disaster on Pakistan's accident-plagued railway system in nearly 15 years.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2oAq6QB
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 31, 2019

Israel rearrests Palestinian MP, daughter saysIsraeli forces on Thursday rearrested a Palestinian lawmaker who was freed in February after being held without trial for 20 months over links to an outlawed leftist group, her daughter said. "My mother Khalida Jarrar was arrested from our house in Ramallah" at about 3:00 am (0100 GMT), Jarrar's daughter Yafa posted on Facebook. Spokespeople for Israel's Shin Bet security service, which generally directs such arrests, could not immediately be reached for comment.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/33f2DDL
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 31, 2019

Islamic State vows revenge against U.S. for Baghdadi killingIslamic State confirmed on Thursday that its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a weekend raid by U.S. special forces in northwestern Syria, and vowed revenge against the United States. The Iraqi rose from obscurity to lead the ultra-hardline group and declare himself "caliph" of all Muslims, holding sway over huge areas of Iraq and Syria from 2014-2017 before Islamic State's control disintegrated under U.S.-led attacks. The group confirmed his death in an audio tape posted online and said a successor, identified as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, had been appointed.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2qbkPz8
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 31, 2019

Graphic: Examining the weapons and tactics used by police and protesters in Hong KongAs the showdown between police and protesters in Hong Kong has intensified, officers have used increasing force, deploying an arsenal of crowd-control weapons, including tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, sponge grenades and bean bag rounds. Protesters have also stepped up their actions, hurling petrol bombs, vandalizing mainland Chinese banks and businesses believed to be pro-Beijing, throwing bricks at police stations and battling officers in the streets, sometimes with metal bars. Reuters scrutinized hundreds of images of the protests, as well as dozens of police reports and video footage, and combined this research with reporting on the ground to document the weapons used by the police and protesters, and how the violence has increased from day to day.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2WwkUtr
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 31, 2019

Trump impeachment: Official says she was repeatedly urged to oust Ukraine ambassador by Republican lobbyistA US government official has reportedly told politicians leading the impeachment hearings against Donald Trump that she was urged by a Republican-linked lobbyist to remove the US ambassador to Ukraine from her post, as the president's allies launched a smear campaign against her.Catherine Croft, a Ukraine expert who worked at the US State Department, said she was repeatedly contacted by lobbyist Robert Livingston about ousting Marie Yovanovitch, according to prepared remarks obtained by NPR.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2qUumLo
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 31, 2019

Al-Baghdadi paid rival for protection but was betrayed by his ownIslamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was able to hide out in an unlikely part of Syria, the base of a rival group, because he was paying protection money to its members, according to receipts for the payments recovered by researchers. But he was ultimately betrayed by a close confidant, leading to his death in a raid by U.S. Special Operations forces last weekend.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/330TLkO
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 31, 2019

Informant who fingered IS leader likely to reap huge reward: reportAn informant who provided crucial details on the movements of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State leader killed in a US commando raid, is likely to scoop up some or all of a $25 million reward, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. The Post said the informant was a well-placed Islamic State operative who facilitated al-Baghdadi's movements around Syria and helped oversee the construction of his Syrian hideout.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2WAkJ0b
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 31, 2019

Security Aide Tells of Ukraine Concerns: Impeachment Update(Bloomberg) -- The House voted Thursday to adopt rules for the next, more public phase of the impeachment investigation. President Donald Trump and his lawyers would be allowed to participate more in the next steps of the inquiry.Also, the House committees conducting the inquiry heard closed-door testimony from Timothy Morrison, the National Security Council’s senior director for Europe and Russia.Here are the latest developments:National Security Aide Tells of Ukraine Moves (7:30 p.m.)Morrison told House impeachment investigators that he was concerned on multiple levels after learning of administration efforts to pressure the Ukraine government to investigate the president’s political rivals in return for military aid.He also specifically identified Gordon Sondland, Trump’s envoy to the European Union, as having communicated to a Ukrainian official that the American military aid would be released if the country investigated an energy company linked to Hunter Biden, former vice president Joe Biden’s son.According to Morrison’s prepared opening remarks Thursday to the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform committees, he confirmed the substance of similar testimony given by William Taylor the acting ambassador to Ukraine, about what Sondland told the Ukrainian official.Morrison said that his resignation, which has been reported, has been delayed until after his involvement with the committees has been concluded.Pentagon Says Vindman Will Be Protected (6:25 p.m.)A U.S. Defense Department official said Thursday that “robust procedures” were in place to protect Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman after he testified in the House impeachment inquiry.Separately, an Army spokeswoman said in a statement that Vindman has been “afforded all protections anyone would be provided in his circumstances.”The statements, from the Pentagon official and the Army spokeswoman, were released after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote to top Army officials demanding to know what protections will be afforded to Vindman after the National Security Council aide’s patriotism was questioned by some conservatives who were angry over his testimony.Vindman testified Tuesday that he listened to Trump’s July 25 telephone call with Ukraine’s president and was so disturbed by the conversation that he reported it to the NSC’s lawyer.Judge Hears Arguments on McGahn Subpoena (4:39 p.m.)A Trump administration lawyer told a federal judge she doesn’t have jurisdiction to consider a House committee lawsuit seeking to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify to the House Judiciary Committee.“This kind of lawsuit can’t be here,” Justice Department attorney James Burnham told U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Thursday in Washington.The Democratic-led Judiciary Committee subpoenaed McGahn in April to testify.McGahn, who resigned his White House post in October 2018, didn’t make his scheduled May 21 appearance before Congress after the White House asserted he was “absolutely immune” from compelled testimony. The House later cited him for contempt, then sued to enforce its subpoena.Lawyers for the House committee told the judge that while the Trump administration can assert executive privilege to prevent McGahn from answering specific questions, it can’t make a blanket assertion of immunity.NSC Aide Wasn’t Disturbed By July 25 Call (2:32 p.m.)Former National Security Council aide Timothy Morrison told House impeachment investigators Thursday he was not concerned that anything illegal was discussed during the July 25 call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said a congressional official familiar with his testimony.Morrison confirmed to members of the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform committees that he was among the officials who listened in on that call, said the official. Morrison’s lawyer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.Morrison left his NSC position a day before his testimony, a senior Trump administration official said.Representative Mark Meadows, a Republican on the Oversight Committee, told reporters that Morrison’s testimony is “at odds” with the deposition given earlier this week by NSC aide Alexander Vindman, who told the committees he was so disturbed by the July conversation that he reported it to the NSC’s lawyer. Meadows said Morrison’s testimony will form the core of the GOP’s defense of Trump. -- Billy HouseDemocrats Promise Equal Chance for Questions (12:53 p.m.)Republicans and Democrats will have an equal opportunity to question witnesses in the public impeachment inquiry hearings, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff told reporters.Schiff said the rules adopted by the House Thursday will allow committee chairmen to begin releasing transcripts of the closed-door hearings held so far, adding that those transcripts will show that the GOP has had an equal chance to conduct questioning.House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel said that in the private hearings, “We’ve seen damning evidence that the president abused his power and jeopardized our national security to help his own political fortunes.”Americans “deserve to know the facts and they soon will,” Engel said.House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said that when the probe advances to his committee the president will have more rights than during the initial fact-finding stage.“It is the duty of the house to vindicate the Constitution,” Nadler said. -- Emily Wilkins and Evan SullyWhite House Says Trump Did ‘Nothing Wrong’ (11:41 a.m.)Minutes after the House vote, White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham issued a statement saying Trump “has done nothing wrong and the Democrats know it.”“Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats’ unhinged obsession with this illegitimate impeachment proceeding does not hurt President Trump,” she said. “It hurts the American people.” She said Democrats are trying to “destroy” the president.Grisham said that the impeachment inquiry is proceeding at the expense of other priorities in the House, including lowering drug costs and passing a U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. -- Justin BlumTwo Democrats Break Ranks on Inquiry Vote (11:35 a.m.)Two Democrats, Collin Petersonof Minnesota and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, broke ranks with their party and voted with Republicans against the rules for the inquiry.Independent House member Justin Amash of Michigan, who quit the Republican Party earlier this year, voted with Democrats for the inquiry. -- Billy House, Erik WassonHouse Votes to Open Public Trump Inquiry (11:29 a.m.)The House adopted the resolution that puts Trump on the path toward impeachment. The 232-196 vote fell along sharply partisan lines.All signs point to the House taking a formal vote on articles of impeachment on Trump, possibly before the end of the year. However, it would take a two-thirds majority vote in the Republican-controlled Senate to convict him, and therefore remove him from office, an outcome viewed at this point as highly unlikely.The resolution doesn’t establish a deadline for the investigation. It directs six House committees to continue investigating different aspects of Trump’s administration, business and associates, with the Intelligence Committee leading the probe of the Ukraine-related allegations. Public hearings could begin in two weeks. -- Billy HouseHouse Has Votes to Back Probe; Vote Ongoing (11:25 a.m.)The House has enough votes to adopt the resolution that puts Trump on the path toward impeachment. The vote is ongoing, falling along sharply partisan lines.With this measure, Democrats plan to hold public impeachment hearings to investigate whether Trump should ultimately be removed from office for pressuring Ukraine to investigate a political rival and other possible misdeeds. The closed depositions led by the Intelligence Committee will continue, along with probes in five other panels.Eventual articles of impeachment would be drafted by the Judiciary Committee for a final floor vote to impeach the president. It would then be up to the Republican-led Senate to decide whether Trump should be removed from office. -- Billy HousePelosi Says ‘Sad Day’ Ahead of Key Vote (10:33 a.m.)Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a decision on whether to impeach Trump “has not been made” as the House prepares to vote on rules for the next phase of the inquiry.”It’s a sad day because nobody comes to Congress to impeach the president of the United States,“ she told reporters.“It’s about the truth and it’s about the Constitution and we’re working very hard to defend our democracy,” she said. “The times have found us.” -- Erik Wasson, Billy HouseNSC Aide Morrison Arrives for House Testimony (8:32 a.m.)Former National Security Council aide Timothy Morrison arrived at the Capitol Thursday for his scheduled testimony before House committees undertaking an impeachment inquiry.Morrison left his position a day before his scheduled testimony, a senior Trump administration official said.Morrison, who served as special assistant to the president and the NSC’s senior director for Europe and Russia, has been identified as one of the officials who listened in on the July 25 call between Trump and Ukraine’s president where Trump pressed for an investigation of his political opponent Joe Biden and his son. -- Billy HouseKey EventsHouse investigators asked Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton to testify on Nov. 7. Bolton was ousted from the White House last month, and it’s unclear how he’ll respond to the request. He would be a key witness to White House events on the administration’s interaction with Ukraine.Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan distanced the State Department from Rudy Giuliani’s claim that his work on Ukraine was done at the department’s request, suggesting it was part of a parallel process that Sullivan and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo weren’t engaged on. Sullivan spoke at his nomination hearing to be U.S. ambassador to Russia.The House Rules Committee advanced rules Wednesday for public hearings by the House Intelligence Committee and, after that, by the Judiciary Committee. Majority Democrats blocked a bid by Republicans to gain equal power to issue subpoenas. The full House plans to vote on the rules Thursday.\--With assistance from Steven T. Dennis, Erik Wasson, Emily Wilkins, Evan Sully, Daniel Flatley and Tony Capaccio.To contact the reporter on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, John Harney, Kevin WhitelawFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2NvjH1j
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 31, 2019

The Latest: Evacuation orders lift for fire sparked by carEvacuation orders have been lifted for a small brush fire sparked by a stolen car at the end of a police chase in Southern California. Officials say the 300-acre blaze in Jurupa Valley east of Los Angeles on Thursday destroyed three homes and two outbuildings before firefighters got a handle on it. Meanwhile, residents who fled a wildfire in San Bernardino could begin returning Thursday evening.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2N3sybw
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 31, 2019

Full coverage: House passes impeachment resolutionThe House on Thursday voted to pass a historic resolution establishing formal procedures for the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Trump. The 232-196 vote fell almost exclusively along party lines, with two moderate Democrats voting no.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2WxgBy7
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 31, 2019

UPDATE 4-Islamic State vows revenge against U.S. for Baghdadi killingIslamic State confirmed on Thursday that its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a weekend raid by U.S. special forces in northwestern Syria, and vowed revenge against the United States. The Iraqi rose from obscurity to lead the ultra-hardline group and declare himself "caliph" of all Muslims, holding sway over huge areas of Iraq and Syria from 2014-2017 before Islsmic State's control disintegrated under U.S.-led attacks. The group confirmed his death in an audio tape posted online and said a successor, identified as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, had been appointed.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2r1QMuq
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 31, 2019

California Governor Accepted Donations from Utility Company He Now Excoriates for ‘Greed’California governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, has accepted large donations from Pacific Gas & Electric Co., a utility company he now excoriates for "greed" and "mismanagement."PG&E has faced widespread criticism for implementing blackouts for millions of customers to avoid sparking wildfires in the midst of California's dry and windy fall weather."I have a message for PG&E," Newsom wrote on Twitter on Friday. "Your years and years of greed. Years and years of mismanagement. Years and years of putting shareholders over people. Are OVER."Newsom and allies accepted $208,400 from the utility during his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, according to local affiliate ABC10. Of that total, $150,000 went to a political spending group called “Citizens Supporting Gavin Newsom for Governor 2018,” while the rest went to directly to Newsom's campaign.PG&E filed for bankruptcy in January 2019. Faulty PG&E electricity equipment has been blamed for sparking several wildfires in the past decade.California has consistently shut down proposals to clear dead trees from forests and to trim trees near power lines state wide, creating conditions for a rash of wildfire outbreaks in recent years.The Kincaid Fire currently burning in Sonoma County in the northern part of the state has forced the evacuation of roughly 200,000 people. The fire is twice the size of the city of San Fransisco.Newsom declared a state of emergency on Sunday in response to the Kincaid Fire and several other wildfires throughout the state. He again threatened PG&E in a statement on the situation."There is a plan to get out of this. This is not the new normal,” Newsom said on Sunday at an evacuation center in northern California. “This is not a 10-year process to deal with this. That will not be the case… [PG&E] will be held to account to do something radically different




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2oEoIfO
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 31, 2019

Graphic: Examining the weapons and tactics used by police and protesters in Hong KongAs the showdown between police and protesters in Hong Kong has intensified, officers have used increasing force, deploying an arsenal of crowd-control weapons, including tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, sponge grenades and bean bag rounds. Protesters have also stepped up their actions, hurling petrol bombs, vandalizing mainland Chinese banks and businesses believed to be pro-Beijing, throwing bricks at police stations and battling officers in the streets, sometimes with metal bars. Reuters scrutinized hundreds of images of the protests, as well as dozens of police reports and video footage, and combined this research with reporting on the ground to document the weapons used by the police and protesters, and how the violence has increased from day to day.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2WwkUtr
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 30, 2019

Trump Sides With Indicted Oligarch Over His Own DiplomatNicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump boosted a tweet Monday promoting a controversial allegation from an indicted Ukrainian oligarch: that a top U.S. diplomat put fabricated information about the mogul in a diplomatic cable. That diplomat happens to be one of Democrats’ key impeachment witnesses. And that oligarch happens to have a long-standing beef with Joe Biden.Scott Adams, a Washington, D.C., talk radio host, sent out a tweet Monday night about U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor, who delivered some of the impeachment inquiry’s most damaging testimony yet. The tweet alleged that Taylor lied about Ukrainian natural gas baron Dmytro Firtash in a cable to State Department headquarters in 2008. At issue was a conversation Taylor had with Firtash in Kyiv that December. Taylor wrote in a diplomatic cable (later published by WikiLeaks) that Firtash told him he had “acknowledged ties to Russian organized crime figure [Semion] Seymon Mogilevich,” one of the most notorious accused mobsters on the planet. According to Taylor, Firtash said “he needed Mogilevich's approval to get into business in the first place,” but had not committed any crimes in the course of his business.When WikiLeaks published the cable in 2010, Firtash issued a statement on his website disputing its contents. Firtash, the statement claimed,“has never stated, to anyone, at any time, that he needed or received permission from Mr. Mogilevich to establish any of his businesses.”Earlier this year, Firtash reiterated that defense. Without mentioning any American official by name, he said someone must have fabricated the detail about Mogilevich. Taylor, meanwhile, has defended the State Department’s notes. The Justice Department appears to side with Taylor; its lawyers have argued in court that Firtash has ties to Russian organized crime. The criminal charges he faces, however, don’t involve any such alleged relationships. Instead, the Justice Department charged him in 2014 with helming a conspiracy to bribe Indian government officials. Trump’s retweet, however, offers a presidential thumbs-up to Firtash’s side of the story, and raises a new line of attack on Taylor’s credibility for the president’s allies.  Asked about his sourcing for the allegations against Taylor, Adams told The Daily Beast, “My sources are solid Foggy Bottom people.” He also noted the explanation for the cable that Firtash provided to The Daily Beast earlier this year.This specific defense of Firtash took hold in The Hill over the summer, when columnist John Solomon, whose articles informed Rudy Giuliani’s Biden-Ukraine investigation, published a piece in July claiming that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s deputy said Firtash’s criminal charges in the U.S. might “go away” if he shared damaging information about Trump with Mueller’s team. Solomon cited “multiple sources with direct knowledge” and contemporaneous memos. Firtash and Solomon share the same lawyers: Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova. The husband-wife team are veterans of the conservative movement’s most contentious legal battles, with longstanding ties in the Justice Department and Trump administration. Ukrainian Oligarch Seethed About ‘Overlord’ Biden for YearsRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/31TLMVv
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 30, 2019

Ilhan Omar refuses to back vote recognising Armenian genocideIlhan Omar declined to vote in favour of a resolution recognising the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a genocide, saying any "true acknowledgement" of such crimes must include other historical "mass slaughters".The Minnesota Democrat was one of just three House members to vote “present” on the resolution that passed in an overwhelming 405-11 vote.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36jWJmB
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 30, 2019

What Baghdadi’s Death Means for al Qaeda—and Why It MattersSITE Intelligence GroupWith ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed one day and the group’s official spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir the next, there’s a giant hole in the pseudo-Caliphate structure of the so-called Islamic State. The group must now, by its strict religious tenets, find a new (supposed) descendant of the Prophet Muhammed to fill the role of Caliph. But the deaths of those two are equally consequential for al-Qaeda, the bitter rival of ISIS for leadership of global jihad. Al-Qaeda has spent the last six years branding the Caliphate as illegitimate, too extreme, and ultimately harmful. When ISIS declared the establishment of its so-called Caliphate spanning territory in Syria and Iraq in 2014, al-Qaeda and its affiliates unanimously rejected it. To this day, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri’s speeches rarely come without some critique of the “epidemic” put forth by ISIS.Trump Officials Had No Clue Where He Got ‘Whimpering’ Detail in His Baghdadi Raid AccountOddly, Baghdadi was killed in Idlib, a haven of al-Qaeda-linked fighters and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a Syrian Islamist faction led by Abu Muhammad al-Julani, a former al-Qaeda comrade who had become one of Baghdadi's most bitter foes. There has been some speculation Baghdadi was not just hiding out but trying to recruit from the ranks of his enemies.Neither al-Qaeda Central nor its affiliates have commented on Baghdadi’s death as yet, but within hours after the news broke, al-Qaeda ideologues and supporters already were celebrating the event and discussing what it will mean for the future of jihad. In chat groups online, al-Qaeda supporters voiced resentment after years of bitter strife with the group, and the scale of these responses illustrates just how much of a big deal and opportunity they see with Baghdadi’s death.“Based on his orders, thousands of the mujahideen were killed,” one post read.“How thrilled were they every time leaders from al-Qaeda were martyred?” read another.Some wished Baghdadi the ultimate condemnation:  “May Allah send him to Hell.”Messages by others, however, particularly al-Qaeda-linked ideologues, balanced expressions of justice for the jihadi movement with restraint, making sure not to celebrate excessively the result of an operation by the United States.The tactful enthusiasm is calculated. Many ISIS fighters, much of its military infrastructure, many media officials, and supporters were pulled from al-Qaeda. Now, with ISIS’ “Caliph” dead and that Caliphate itself destroyed, al-Qaeda has been given its biggest opportunity yet to bring many of them back under its tent. SITE Intelligence GroupPerhaps the most profound instance of this outreach was a lengthy essay by “Adel Amin,” the pen name of a prominent ideologue linked to the Shabaab al-Mujahideen Movement, al-Qaeda’s branch in Somalia and most powerful affiliate. The message, disseminated widely across al-Qaeda-supporting channels and chat groups (many of which are also frequented by pro-ISIS users), demanded that ISIS supporters “return to the road of righteousness” after the Islamic State, in all of its excessive aggression and delusions of destiny, has proven itself a failure. Amin wrote:The situation here is not one in which to gloat. It is a situation for reminding and calling on those who remained in the ranks of al-Baghdadi, to reconsider… Indeed, we witnessed its back being broken, its leaders getting killed, and its banner falling, and we hope that we can witness whoever remains from its soldiers returning to righteousness.Statements by other ideologues and supporters voiced the same points. A statement by Sirajuddin Zurayqat, a former religious official in the now-defunct al-Qaeda-linked Brigades of Abdullah Azzam in Lebanon, urged: “Now [Baghdadi] is dead and there is not one from the Ummah grieving over him or giving condolences... Therefore, those who were deceived by him should reconsider before it is too late!”These messages echo the same calls heard from Zawahiri and al-Qaeda affiliates over the years calling on ISIS fighters to “repent” and leave the group. Yet despite these new circumstances, ISIS supporters will not easily be moved. Since the summer of 2016, the group’s followers have seen the loss of the major cities Mosul in Iraq and Raqqah in Syria as well as the death of revered ISIS figures like Omar Shishani, Abu Muhammad al-‘Adnani, and others. With the latest setbacks to its leadership, ISIS-linked accounts online already have poured out calls to stay steadfast and have even used Baghdadi’s death as a rallying point to carry out new attacks. Reinforcing this undeterred support is an ISIS military and media machine that has shown no sign of stopping in the last two days. While ISIS has not yet officially acknowledged the death of Baghdadi, it has continued reporting on day-to-day military activity across Iraq, Syria, and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.ISIS' Yemen Province - AQAP Prisoners as Featured in the video “He Who Starts is More Unjust”SITE Intelligence GroupFurthermore, while al-Qaeda affiliates like the Shabaab serve as powerful representatives of the organization, al-Qaeda Central is weaker than it has ever been. These days, al-Qaeda Central’s role is largely symbolic, limited to leadership messages and other content while steering the big-picture ethos of the organization. Its attempts to bolster its image, already heavily weighed down by a less-than-charismatic leader in Zawahiri, were upended upon the death of Hamza bin Laden, the son of Osama, whom al-Qaeda likely was grooming for an eventual leadership position. These variables considered, al-Qaeda may not be the appealing alternative for jihadists that its supporters want it to seem. So, while some fighters might very well join the ranks of al-Qaeda affiliates in their region, we shouldn't expect to see any drastic migration from ISIS’ ranks into its rival’s.Despite any notions of good-riddance that al-Qaeda and its supporters attach to Baghdadi’s death, and for whatever number of defectors it may win over as a result of Baghdadi’s demise, ISIS is not going anywhere. The barriers between these terrorist organizations have only hardened over the years, fueling deadly clashes and jihadi PR wars. Baghdadi was not the sole barrier keeping ISIS members from joining al-Qaeda, and his death is unlikely to diminish existing disputes.How U.S. Commandos IDed a ‘Mutilated’ Baghdadi So QuicklyRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2C54XkN
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 30, 2019

Trump Administration Challenges California Sanctuary Law in Supreme CourtThe Trump administration has petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down California's "sanctuary law," which hinders cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.The administration is challenging several provisions in the California Values Act, or S.B. 54. The law prohibits officials from sharing information with ICE about a suspect's release from custody, eliminating any opportunity for ICE agents to take illegal immigrants into custody before they are released from local jails. It also prohibits local law-enforcement officers from sharing physical descriptions of suspects with immigration authorities."The practical consequences of California’s obstruction are not theoretical; as a result of SB 54, criminal aliens have evaded the detention and removal that Congress prescribed, and have instead returned to the civilian population, where they are disproportionately likely to commit additional crimes," the Trump administration argued in its petition, which was filed Monday.While the provisions of S.B. 54 do not technically apply to suspects with a violent criminal history, since the law effectively prevents local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE, immigration officials must stake out jails and police stations to await the release of non-citizen suspects from custody, and only then make arrests.Last week at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, ICE official Timothy Robbins claimed that the Los Angeles police department was releasing as many as 100 illegal immigrants per day from custody."Cooperation between ICE and state and local law enforcement agencies is critical to the agency’s efforts to identify and arrest removable aliens, and to protect the nation’s security,” Robbins said at the time. “Unfortunately, we are seeing more jurisdictions that refuse to work with our officers, or directly impede our public safety efforts."




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2BTcwL3
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 30, 2019

The Latest: Islamic State leader buried at sea, US saysThe head of United States Central Command says Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was buried at sea after a weekend raid on his compound. Gen. Frank McKenzie told reporters Wednesday that al-Baghdadi died after he exploded a suicide vest just before U.S. troops were going to capture him. McKenzie says two children were killed in the explosion set off by the Islamic State leader.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2qR1fsn
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 30, 2019

Biden's communion denial highlights faith-politics conflictA Roman Catholic priest's denial of communion to Joe Biden in South Carolina on Sunday illustrates the fine line presidential candidates must walk as they talk about their faiths: balancing religious values with a campaign that asks them to choose a side in polarizing moral debates. The awkward moment for Biden came during a weekend campaign swing through South Carolina, a pivotal firewall in his hopes to claim the Democratic presidential nomination. The former vice president on Sunday visited St. Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, a midsize city in the state's largely rural northeast.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2MUhmOq
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 30, 2019

Hiram Sasser: Trump judicial pick in tears -- Left has again deployed lies, smears to destroy a nominee



Lawrence VanDyke is one of President Trump’s outstanding nominees to serve on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But he was the target of a disgraceful character assassination attempt Wednesday at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee when he was asked about false and absurd allegations that he would not be fair to the LGBTQ community.

via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2q7WJVY
Read more »

October 30, 2019

Exclusive: How Lebanon's Hariri defied HezbollahAfter hitting a dead end in efforts to defuse the crisis sweeping Lebanon, Saad al-Hariri informed a top Hezbollah official on Monday he had no choice but to quit as prime minister in defiance of the powerful Shi'ite group. The decision by the Sunni leader shocked Hussein al-Khalil, political advisor to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who advised him against giving in to protesters who wanted to see his coalition government toppled. The meeting described to Reuters by four senior sources from outside Hariri's Future Party captures a critical moment in the crisis that has swept Lebanon for the last two weeks as Hariri yielded to the massive street protests against the ruling elite.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36cyvdQ
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 30, 2019

Eric Swalwell and Mark Meadows reportedly got into a shouting match during the Vindman hearingThings reportedly got heated between House Democrats and Republicans during Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's impeachment testimony Tuesday, CNN reports.Considering the consequences of the hearing (Vindman, the National Security Council's top expert on Ukraine, testified about his concerns regarding the Trump administration's interactions with Kyiv), it's not a shocker that the atmosphere in the closed-door hearing was tense, but the lawmakers reportedly took things to another level with a "shouting match."It apparently started when House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) objected to a line of questioning from Republicans. Schiff accused the GOP of trying to reveal the identity of the original whistleblower who set the whole saga in motion by expressing concern over President Trump's phone call in July with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Republicans reportedly didn't take too kindly to Schiff's charge, and the fray ended with Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) yelling at each other, multiple sources confirmed, which isn't surprising since the two have gone at it before.> This isn't the first time Swalwell & Meadows have sparred during the depositions. They also butt heads during Kurt Volker's testimony, during which Meadows accused Swalwell of trying to take over Schiff's duties while he was out of the room, per sources with direct knowledge https://t.co/xXogAyQ44T> > -- Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) October 29, 2019Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) expressed her displeasure with Republicans afterwards, calling their performance during the hearing "pathetic," while arguing their only course of action was "attacking" Vindman, a decorated military veteran. Read more at CNN. > Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) calls House Republicans "pathetic," accusing them of "attacking" Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman during his testimony in the impeachment inquiry Tuesday; "they can't defend the president's conduct so basically they are attacking a war hero," Hirono says. pic.twitter.com/yAiyw6EYt2> > -- CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) October 29, 2019




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/34cfO8f
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 30, 2019

Mexican soldiers told Chapo's son to call to stop attacksMexican security forces had a son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán outside a house on his knees against a wall before they were forced to back off and let him go as his cartel's gunmen shot up the western city of Culiacan. Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval on Wednesday showed video and presented a timeline of the failed operation to arrest Ovidio Guzmán López on Oct. 17 — an incident that embarrassed the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Guzmán called his brother Archivaldo Iván Guzmán Salazar on his cellphone and told him to stop the chaos.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3329NLc
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 30, 2019

Facebook Uncovers Russian Disinformation Campaign in Africa in Prelude to 2020 U.S. ElectionsFacebook announced on Wednesday that it had removed three Russian-backed influence networks from its platform that targeted several African countries including Cameroon, Mozambique, Libya, and Sudan.The networks posted information in Arabic critical of U.S. and French policies in Africa, while praising Russian initiatives in the region. Russian operatives worked with local citizens to set up Facebook accounts that appeared more authentic."They are trying to make it harder for us and civil society to try and detect their operations," Nathaniel Gleicher, head of Facebook’s cybersecurity policy, told the New York Times.Director of the Stanford Internet Observatory Alex Stamos, himself a former Facebook executive, said the Russian campaign in Africa will have implications for the 2020 presidential elections."We will see a model where American groups are used as proxies, where all the content is published under their accounts and their pages,” Stamos said.The Russian networks are linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch who has been sanctioned by the U.S. for interfering in U.S. elections.When the State Department announced new sanctions on Prigozhin in September, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. will not tolerate any interference in the voting process.“We have been clear: We will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement. “The United States will continue to push back against malign actors who seek to subvert our democratic processes and we will not hesitate to impose further costs on Russia for its destabilizing and unacceptable activities.”




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Wr7fDR
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 30, 2019

Trump Sides With Indicted Oligarch Over His Own DiplomatNicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump boosted a tweet Monday promoting a controversial allegation from an indicted Ukrainian oligarch: that a top U.S. diplomat put fabricated information about the mogul in a diplomatic cable. That diplomat happens to be one of Democrats’ key impeachment witnesses. And that oligarch happens to have a long-standing beef with Joe Biden.Scott Adams, a Washington, D.C., talk radio host, sent out a tweet Monday night about U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor, who delivered some of the impeachment inquiry’s most damaging testimony yet. The tweet alleged that Taylor lied about Ukrainian natural gas baron Dmytro Firtash in a cable to State Department headquarters in 2008. At issue was a conversation Taylor had with Firtash in Kyiv that December. Taylor wrote in a diplomatic cable (later published by WikiLeaks) that Firtash told him he had “acknowledged ties to Russian organized crime figure [Semion] Seymon Mogilevich,” one of the most notorious accused mobsters on the planet. According to Taylor, Firtash said “he needed Mogilevich's approval to get into business in the first place,” but had not committed any crimes in the course of his business.When WikiLeaks published the cable in 2010, Firtash issued a statement on his website disputing its contents. Firtash, the statement claimed,“has never stated, to anyone, at any time, that he needed or received permission from Mr. Mogilevich to establish any of his businesses.”Earlier this year, Firtash reiterated that defense. Without mentioning any American official by name, he said someone must have fabricated the detail about Mogilevich. Taylor, meanwhile, has defended the State Department’s notes. The Justice Department appears to side with Taylor; its lawyers have argued in court that Firtash has ties to Russian organized crime. The criminal charges he faces, however, don’t involve any such alleged relationships. Instead, the Justice Department charged him in 2014 with helming a conspiracy to bribe Indian government officials. Trump’s retweet, however, offers a presidential thumbs-up to Firtash’s side of the story, and raises a new line of attack on Taylor’s credibility for the president’s allies.  Asked about his sourcing for the allegations against Taylor, Adams told The Daily Beast, “My sources are solid Foggy Bottom people.” He also noted the explanation for the cable that Firtash provided to The Daily Beast earlier this year.This specific defense of Firtash took hold in The Hill over the summer, when columnist John Solomon, whose articles informed Rudy Giuliani’s Biden-Ukraine investigation, published a piece in July claiming that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s deputy said Firtash’s criminal charges in the U.S. might “go away” if he shared damaging information about Trump with Mueller’s team. Solomon cited “multiple sources with direct knowledge” and contemporaneous memos. Firtash and Solomon share the same lawyers: Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova. The husband-wife team are veterans of the conservative movement’s most contentious legal battles, with longstanding ties in the Justice Department and Trump administration. Ukrainian Oligarch Seethed About ‘Overlord’ Biden for YearsRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/31TLMVv
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 29, 2019

EXCLUSIVE-Baghdadi's aide was key to his capture -Iraqi intelligence sourcesIn their long hunt for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Iraqi intelligence teams secured a break in February 2018 after one of the Islamic State leader's top aides gave them information on how he escaped capture for so many years, said two Iraqi security officials. Baghdadi would sometimes hold strategy talks with his commanders in moving minibuses packed with vegetables in order to avoid detection, Ismael al-Ethawi told officials after he was arrested by Turkish authorities and handed to the Iraqis. "Ethawi gave valuable information which helped the Iraqi multi-security agencies team complete the missing pieces of the puzzle of Baghdadi's movements and places he used to hide," one of the Iraqi security officials said.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/32RqBol
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 29, 2019

Tree branch blown into power lines suspected of sparking Los Angeles Getty fireA broken tree branch blown into power lines by high winds likely sparked the wildfire that has driven thousands of residents from their homes around the famed Getty Center museum in Los Angeles, the city fire department said on Tuesday. The findings, based on evidence from the site where flames erupted early Monday, came as fire managers and utility operators braced for another onslaught of fierce, dry desert winds expected to begin howling across much of California on Tuesday night. Electricity remained cut off to at least half a million homes and businesses in northern and central California as a precaution against the kind of wind-related fire starts now suspected as having caused the Getty blaze.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36e1duN
via Yahoo News

Read more »

October 29, 2019

Elected Arizona official accused of selling babies suspendedAn elected official in Arizona was suspended Monday after he was charged with running a human smuggling scheme that brought pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to the U.S. to give birth and then paid them to give up their children for adoption. Leaders in Arizona's most populous county suspended Assessor Paul Petersen without pay for 120 days. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors doesn't have the power to permanently remove him from his office, which determines the value of properties for tax purposes in Phoenix and its suburbs.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2BSLJP7
via Yahoo News

Read more »
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Author Name

Contact Form

Name

Email *

Message *

Powered by Blogger.